1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mixtures of long chain aliphatic monoamines predominating in secondary amines, and to a process for the preparation thereof. In a further aspect, the present invention relates to aqueous dispersions of the quaternary ammonium compound mixtures derived from said long chain aliphatic amine mixtures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Quaternary derivatives of long chain aliphatic secondary and tertiary mono-amines are known to possess fabric softening characteristics and hence these derivatives are currently used extensively in such an application. Since the quaternary derivatives of secondary mono-amines are more suitable softeners than the corresponding derivatives of the tertiary amines, the art has sought to develop a method for producing amines by ammonolysis of alcohols whereby secondary amines constitute a major to a predominant portion of the product mix. Hitherto, however, these methods have resulted in the production of amine products predominating in tertiary amines.
It is further known how to optimize the fabric softening characteristics of the quaternary compounds concerned by appropriate selection of the alcohol mixture to provide a suitable alkyl chain length distribution to the amine products from whence the quaternary compounds are derived. However, the aqueous alcoholic concentrates of these optimized compositions characteristically lack liquidity at room temperature and thus are difficult to disperse in preparing low active content dispersions thereof. Moreover, aqueous dispersions of the prior art compositions at the low active levels frequently used in house hold applications are prone to be unstable.